WWJD Revisited....

On a Christian blog called Formerly Fundie, in a post about the mistaken notion that Christians should try to “take our country back,” the following paragraph stood out.

Instead of just blindly following religious leaders off a cliff, Jesus people should always be asking and wrestling with the questions of, “But what did Jesus say about this? What did Jesus do? What example of Christ have we to follow?”

May I respectfully suggest that this is not rocket science. We can figure it out if we want to. After all, Jesus lived it out in real life situations for us to see. It’s not the knowing that’s hard….it’s the doing that’s sometimes damn near impossible.

There are four gospels all telling the same story (give or take a few minor contradictions). Jesus displays the same behavior, values, compassion, morals, faith, beliefs….sets the same example….throughout all four of the Gospels yet we struggle to figure out how a Christian should behave.

During the recent upheaval in Indiana, John Pavlovitz, a popular blogger, wrote these words that Jesus might say to modern day Christians:

You were designed to do this, to be this.  My kindness, my goodness, my forgiveness; you were created to be the method of transportation for all of it.

My beloved, I placed you here, not to defend or protect or replace me, but simply to reflect me.  That has always been my most critical commandment and your most pressing obligation; loving God and loving others. I thought that I was clear on that, when I was asked this before.

The thing is, he was clear. He was very clear. Could it be that we just don't like what we see....?

Picking and Choosing Scripture - Err on the Side of Love.....

At the beginning of the year, in an effort to get my web meanderings in some kind of order, I decided (among other things) to focus on several “preacher-teachers” whose sermons resonate with where I am on my spiritual/human journey. Adam Hamilton was one of them. (also Nadia Bolz-Weber)  I know I’ve mentioned Adam Hamilton numerous times here on this blog.

At the Church of the Resurrection website, there are archives of all his sermons from the present to yesteryear, along with sermon resources etc. At the gym yesterday, I used a version of the “eenie, meenie, miney, moe” method to choose which sermon to listen to. It was entitled “Making Sense of the Bible.” That is also the title of his newest book. He has gotten some slack about it because it takes a good hard “look-see” at what evangelicals hold near and dear; perhaps nearest and dearest….the inerrancy and infallibility of Scripture.

In his opinion, because of the enlightenment and several subsequent movements that have “dissed” scripture, fundamentalists pushed back in a Newtons Law kind of way…...for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. As a result, many evangelical denominations have moved scripture up to the top slot on their faith statements. I googled some well known evangelical churches and found that the Church of God, the Free Methodists and the Baptists all mention scripture FIRST in their faith statements. They mention it before they mention God. They mention it before they mention Jesus. They mention it before they mention the Holy Spirit. I’m sure there are other churches who stick to this hierarchy.

The Bible is not the word of God. Jesus is the Word of God. (In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1) The Bible CONTAINS the word of God and when we read it, listen to it, pray it and sing it, God speaks to us through it. When we pay attention, God uses the Bible as an instrument of his speaking.

Hamilton suggested using three “buckets”or categories to sort scripture.

The first, and by far the largest, bucket holds the sections of the Bible we read and know beyond a doubt “fit God.” They fit the image of God revealed to us in Jesus. There is no clearer image...no closer representation, no truer benchmark than Jesus. This bucket is easy to fill and the verses contained within console, convict, comfort, caution and clarify. They edify, enlighten and educate. These verses, stories and instructions are timeless. They reveal the heart of the Father that is exactly the same heart Jesus showed us.

The second bucket holds the scriptures that are clearly for another time, culture or situation. Keith had shrimp last night at Red Lobster. Uh-oh….abomination. My blouse was a polyester cotton blend. Uh-oh...abomination. He was sporting a haircut (He does have a beard but he often trims it) A lot of the abominations had to do with cleanliness. There was no Purell water-less hand sanitizer. No antibiotics. No thermometers to make sure food reached a safe temperature to kill bacteria and other nasties. Some of the abominations were to set Israel apart from other nations. Some abominations and OT directives have spiritual implications.

The third bucket is the sticking point for many “God said it, I believe it, That settles it” Christians. It is for scriptures you just don’t know what to do with. Oh, some folks try to explain them away, spiritualize them, justify them. Others ignore them. They are verses that don’t match the character and nature of God revealed in Jesus. They do not match up to any of the Gospel stories….nor to the “summation of the law” that Jesus gave us about loving our God and loving our neighbor. The passages that no how, no way fit the “golden rule” verse in the Bible….

“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12.

Genocide, war, violence, stonings, beheadings, trickery. Everyone is familiar with those verses that just don’t make sense.  

Aaaaaaaah….but that is picking and choosing scripture, no? But we all pick and choose. Even those who deny picking and choosing do, in fact, pick and choose. We don’t stone our rebellious teenagers. We don’t stone the folks who commit adultery.  We allow remarried people to worship in our churches. We RE-marry couples in our churches that clearly do not fit the “biblical criteria” for divorce and remarriage. We cut our hair. We don’t cover our heads. Some of us get tattoos. We allow women to speak in church….some churches allow women to preach in church. We eat pork. We don’t banish menstruating women to the shed in the back yard. We all pick and choose.

I like this quote from Carl Gregg's blog

Second, we should not be surprised that everyone engages in “picking and choosing” because if you survey what the Bible has to say about, for example, anger, wealth, adultery, disobedient wives and children, marriage, and divorce it becomes clear that the Bible is simultaneously both contradictory and enormously demanding. In other words, it is essentially impossible to obey all that the Bible literally says because some parts of the Bible are mutually exclusive of other parts. Does this mean that we are free to choose willy-nilly which parts of the Bible to follow? To quote the apostle Paul’s repeated refrain from the epistle to the Romans, “By no means!” However, from the perspective of progressive Christianity, Jack Black as Jesus is right when he says, “If you pick and choose, why not choose love?”

Indeed….why not err on the side of love?

Photo-Shopping Jesus....

I read an article this morning on the Relevant website about how many of us try to make Jesus into a more appropriate, acceptable....palatable Jesus....closer to our own tastes. Sometimes, even made in our own image. We do this by ignoring or adding to what we read in the gospels. The article compared it to airbrushing Jesus.

The Bible is not an easy read. There are many factors that make it difficult to understand. Contradictions, historical and cultural differences, translation bias, translation errors, denomination bias; especially the Old Testament. But there are four gospels that basically tell the same story. They are written from slightly different perspectives and to different "audiences" but all four agree on the big stuff, especially the synoptic gospels. The character of Jesus is consistent in all four of them. There are no schizophrenic exceptions, mood swings or inconsistent behavior. Anything that seems inconsistent just needs a closer look. And throughout the Gospels, Jesus bids us, "Follow me." How then do some of us get him so wrong?

There are some things he says that I really don't like much...like what he says about enemy love. I would rather he hadn't said that. I don't want to love my enemies or bless those who curse me. Not only did he tell us about enemy love, he showed us when he went to the cross praying for the forgiveness of those crucifying him. I am so totally not there yet, however, I KNOW he said it. I can't deny he said it and what he meant. He didn't really list any exceptions.  

How can anyone can read the Gospels and come away with the idea that Jesus taught anything but active nonviolent, sacrificial love? Not doormat love. Not pacifism. Nonviolence and pacifism are not the same thing. When I hear folks trying to present him as some kind of a "God Bless America Warrior" Jesus, I think they are totally missing the mark.

There has been a lot of controversy about the current American Sniper movie. Some say he was a hero...some say he was a glorified serial killer. I'm not weighing in on that discussion in this post but I did read a comment from a Fox movie critic, Todd Starnes, that I think is a great example of photoshopping Jesus.

In response to a comment by Michael Moore, Starnes said,

“Well, I’m no theologian, but I suspect Jesus would tell that God-fearing, red-blooded American sniper, ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant for dispatching another Godless jihadist to the lake of fire,’ but then again I'm no theologian.”

Definitely NOT a theologian...and definitely not the Jesus presented in the four Gospels. But the Jesus that appeals to Starnes.

If we are too busy making Jesus look and act like us, doesn’t that it impede the process of theosis.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, of his boundless love, became what we are that he might make us what he himself is. (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, V.)   

~~~~~~

“God rewards those who seek Him. Not those who seek doctrine of religion or systems or creeds. Many settle for these lesser passions, but the reward goes to those who settle for nothing less than Jesus himself. And what is the reward? What awaits those who seek Jesus? Nothing short of the heart of Jesus.”   ― Max Lucado, Just Like Jesus  

~~~~~~~

“Christ entered our world. As a result, we can enter His.” ― Max Lucado, God Came Near   

~~~~~~~~

“What you think of Jesus Christ Will thoroughly color how you think about everything else.” ― Max Lucado

~~~~~~~~

……………….but we know that when He is revealed, (to become known, to be plainly recognized, thoroughly understood--who and what one is) we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

 

Choose Your Contradiction….

I came upon a snippet in an essay I was rereading this week…for the umpteenth time,The Voice of the Good Shepherd on the God Quest website.  I highly recommend the essay…and all the other writings on the website. 

This article deals with the “two voices” running throughout scripture' (mainly the Old Testament) where in one passage God gives meticulous instructions about the who, what, when and where concerning sacrifice and in another passage God asks incredulously….WHO told you to do that?

What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. When you come to appear before me, who asked this from your hand?

There are numerous….hundreds….of places where the Bible contradicts itself.  God bashers delight in these contradictions. This “proves” to them that the Bible is nothing but a collection of hogwash.   

If taken at face value, the Old Testament God is pyscho to the nth degree….and detestable, as voiced by Thomas Paine in The Age of Reason. 

"Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and tortuous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness, that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and, for my part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel."

The Bible is written to the spiritual man (a head nod to Keith, who first taught me this concept) but the problem is that in this realm, our understanding is tainted by our carnality.  And we twist and adapt and interpret the words of scripture to fit our beliefs. 

It’s a cliché, and oft repeated, but you truly can prove anything from the Bible.  And volumes have been written propping up bullshit theologies using the words of scripture as the basis. 

The snippet, I came upon in this insightful essay…..

Choose your contradiction. 

Because in fact, we all do.  We focus on the verses that prop up our (bullshit?) theologies and ignore, or explain away or trivialize the verses that do not conform to our beliefs. 

WE. ALL. DO. IT.

That’s because the veil has not been completely rent…and our spiritual understanding is sometimes contaminated by our carnal thinking. 

My personal benchmark for interpreting scripture is to filter everything in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation through the image of the invisible God who has been revealed to us by Jesus.

My friend annie…her filter is “God is Light. God is Love. And in Him there is no darkness.”

We all have our filters.  We all have our blinders.  We all choose our contradictions.  Choose carefully.  Choose prayerfully. 

What do Elvis and Thich Nhat Hanh have in common?

What do Elvis and Thich Nhat Hanh have in common? A belief in oneness.  Of God with humanity…of humanity with humanity.  That we all have one father.  Or as it declares in Ephesians 4:6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

Elvis said it this way:

Everybody comes from the same source. If you hate another human being, you're hating part of yourself.

And Thich Nhat Hanh….

We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness.

Great truths that roll off the tongues of rock idols and Buddhist monks are backed up by the great Truths in scripture…declared by none other than Jesus….

Their Future Glory (John 17)

20 "I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; 21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so  that the world may believe that You sent Me. ²² "The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; ²³ I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. ²⁴ "Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be  with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

When I looked up the meaning of some of these words in the Strong’s…a couple of interesting things stand out.  The word translated “glory” is “doxa” in the Greek.  Among its meanings…

a most glorious condition, most exalted state 

Jesus declares that the same glory…the Father gave him, he gave his disciples…and he also gave us. He’s not praying just for his disciples in these verses but for all those who will believe.  That we may be one.  In Jeremiah (32:39) God declares he will give them (and by implication…us) one heart and one way.  Everybody….

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Gal 3:28 )

and the…

uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all. (Col 3:11)

all one in Christ…

Christ is all and in all

I also looked up the meaning of the word translated barbarian. One of the meanings…

one who speaks a foreign or strange language which is not understood by another

That does not necessarily mean the language of a nation or people....although that is one of the definitions listed. The Greeks considered anyone who did not speak or understand Greek barbarians aka foreigners.  And it wasn’t a derogatory term in New Testament days. It wasn’t until after the Persian War that the word barbarian started to have negative connotations. 

So one who speaks a strange language not understood by another could easily describe the language of a different religious groups whose terminology or views are “strange” to us.  The strange language could easily be the "lingo" associated with new age....new thought....Buddhist....Hindu etc. etc, or… to the Buddhist or Hindu, the strange language could be “christianese.”

And what about the Scythian?  Well, the Strongs describes that particular member of the “one” as

….an inhabitant of Scythia or modern day Russia--by the more civilized nations of antiquity the Scythians were regarded as the wildest of barbarians

So that doesn’t even leave out those folks we are at odds with.  It doesn’t even leave out the “wildest of barbarians.”  I don’t particularly like that aspect of “oneness.”  I really prefer to share my space with those I like…those who do me no harm…those who are kind and considerate…but that’s not what it says.  (and for the record, I am so not there yet)

Which brings me to one of the other meanings of “Doxa”…the English word “Glory.” 

judgment, view, opinion, estimate, whether good or bad concerning someone

but adds this clarification…

in the NT always a good opinion concerning one, resulting in praise, honour, and glory

So could an aspect of the “glory” Jesus talks about…the glory God gave him that he in turn gave them….and us…also involve an accurate assessment of who He was and who they were and who we are? Could that be what he meant when he said…all those who will believe?

I’ve heard it said in Universalist circles that “everybody is saved, they just don’t know it yet.” But perhaps the truest declaration is not just that everyone is is saved but that everyone is…ONE…we just don’t know it yet. Nobody is excluded.  Even the barbarian is part of the “in crowd.”  Even the Scythian, the wildest of all barbarians is included….all one in Christ Jesus. 

This post is getting long, but I want to point out one other aspect of Jesus’ words. 

that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.

Perfected in unity.  Perfection implies completion.  It is in unity that we are perfected…completed….rendered full (Strongs again) A lot to think about. A lot to understand.  A lot for the carnal nature to be disgruntled about….but laid out clearly in Scripture and in the strange language of the sacred writings of so many religious traditions. 

When Everything Falls Apart….

I’ve been listening to the local Christian radio station…now and then…usually on my way to and from work.  Lately, it seems that almost every time I tune in to WGRC there is a song playing with lyrics that grab my attention…a song I’ve never heard before.  Some are by performers of yesteryear…Petra, for example….and some are singers/bands that are popular right now.  Some are rock and rollish….some much more laid back. It’s the lyrics that usually break through my “gotta’ get to work/running late” preoccupation. 

I’ve been scribbling down snippets of the lyrics while stopped at red lights etc….then, later, google them.  I save the info I find in a file with the intent to post some of the lyrics and links and videos here on my blog. Today is as good a day as any to start.  It’s another interruption to the Clean Hands thing…which I have more to say about…but just not this morning. 

The You Tube Video I’m posting this morning is by a band named Fee. Emily knew the band and the song when I asked her about it, but they were to to me.  Most of their music is rock and roll and does not really resonate with me….but their song, Everything Falls, caught my attention the other day.

Oftentimes, life is a perpetual series of inconveniences and upheavals….major and minor….heart wrenching or just simply annoying. Jesus did give us a heads up about that when he said, “In this world you will have trouble.” So sometimes even when things seem to be going the best…or seem to be on an even keel, I get the nagging feeling that calamity is just around the corner. 

The second half of his “heads up” is not as easy to live out.  “But be of good cheer…for I have overcome the world.” 

In it’s usual wordy style the Amplified Bible renders John 16:33 like this:

I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]

And about that calamity waiting around the corner….again Jesus gives us a heads up.  This is from the Message…

"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes. Matthew 6:34

And we get through it all by remembering that when “everything falls apart, Your arms hold me together” or in the words of a much older song…

What have I to dread, what have I to fear,
Leaning on the everlasting arms?
I have blessed peace with my Lord so near,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.

Video follows….

Warrior Jesus?

A few weekends ago, when I drove to visit my mom about four hours away, I helped pass the time by listening to a series of sermons downloaded from Woodland Hills, the church where Greg Boyd  is senior pastor.  The series I listened to was about the outrageous love of God as told through the parables of the prodigal son, the lost sheep and the lost coin.
An interesting thing he mentioned about the parable of the lost coin...there was a custom during that time period...brides wore necklaces made of coins....as a symbol of the marriage bond.  The coins were the wedding ring.  Losing one of the coins....definitely not cool.  So she looked and looked until she found it....just like God seeks until he finds us....ALL of us.  And then there is rejoicing.  This view of the parable is not unique to Boyd.  He credited Wiersbe with introducing him to the idea.


While I'm on the subject of Greg Boyd...on his blog he recently posted a writing called,  Revelation and the Violent Prize Fighting Jesus.  It is a response to a comment in Relevant Magazine, by Mark Driscoll (well known pastor of Mars Hill in Seattle)

“In Revelation, Jesus is a prize-fighter with a tattoo down His leg, a sword in His hand and the commitment to make someone bleed. That is the guy I can worship. I cannot worship the hippie, diaper, halo Christ because I cannot worship a guy I can beat up.”

Wow...think he might have missed the gist of the teachings of Jesus?  Jesus didn’t come the first time to make someone bleed…HE came to bleed and die on the cross.  And even if I believed in a literal, bodily return of Jesus the next time around, I’m thinking he wouldn’t come to kick anyone’s ass. 


Boyd responds:

.....the model of Jesus as a “prize fighter” with a “commitment to make someone bleed” allows us to indulge it. (our tendency to resort to violence) If we can dismiss the peace-loving Jesus as a “hippie, diaper, halo Christ,” then we’re free to wish and even inflict vengeance on our enemies all we like — and feel righteous about it! 

He mentions his upcoming book...

A Questionable Peace: Responding to Alleged Violence in the New Testament). It will serve as a prequel to my book offering a non-violent theological interpretation of the OT (The Crucifixion of the Warrior God).  Because the literalistic, violent misinterpretation of Revelation is so prevalent among evangelicals, I get asked about Revelation frequently. So I thought it might be helpful for me to share with you fine folks a few of the scholarly works I’ve found that support a non-violent interpretation of this book. How I wish Mark Driscoll and others who embrace the “prize fighter” perspective would digest some of this material!

He lists a dozen or so books that address the issue of an apocalyptic Jesus and a violent, literal interpretation of Revelation. I may not purchase the Questionable Peace book...but the other book...the Crucifixion of the Warrior God will be a must read for me.  It addresses something that has always bothered me.  The different face of God in the Old and New Testament.  Almost as if God was “two faced”…. 

Faith vs. Works??

Okay, changing the topic a bit....I wrote the following post a week or so ago when I was visiting my mom for a few days.....

For the past few days, I’ve been visiting my mom in a small town in Western Pennsylvania…Ellwood City. It’s economy went down the crapper back when the steel mills packed up and left and it’s never really recovered. Still it is cleaner and more thriving than many towns in this area and I’ve lived here off and on throughout my life. As a baby…as a child…even as a young adult. I would probably never move back to Ellwood, but it feels “"homey” to me in some ways.

My mom is not into technology…proof of that…..she doesn’t even own a TV. Nope, no TV…and no computer. No computer equals no internet. I’ve been without internet for four days….except for my daily pilgrimages to the closest McDonald’s. (fyi…McD’s has free wifi at most of it's locations across the country. Easy to connect to with a minimum of fiddling with the wifi settings on your computer. And they have great coffee…equaling Starbucks or Dunkin’ in quality but cheaper )

For the times, I knew I would not be hanging out at McD's, I downloaded a few websites (using a nifty free app called Backstreet Browser) to read offline. One was an eclectic site called The Nazarene Way…lots of obscure, odd writings there. The other site was Richard Beck’s blog, Experimental Theology. I’ve spent most of my offline web browsing at Experimental Theology checking out the archives. I’ve come across a lot that has resonated, piqued or stirred….and I plan to write about some of the topics here on my blog…..beginning with this one.

On Being a Practicing Christian: Orthodoxy and Orthopraxy – 6/23/06

New word for me…orthopraxy. But not a new concept to me or to Christianity. Actually, it's been the topic of much debate down through the centuries.

Faith vs. works. Right belief or right action. Faith IN Jesus or the faith OF Jesus. Orthodoxy or Orthopraxy?

The Bible is not silent on the issue. Trouble is, like most issues the Bible addresses, there are conflicting views both laid out in scripture.

James addresses it head on in James 2....

14What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? 15Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, 16and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? 17So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.

So does Paul….

(Ephesians 2:8-9) - "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast."

And so does Richard Beck on his blog

For me, beliefs are like the tides, they ebb and flow. But how I treat my neighbor, how I practice my faith, should be constant and unchanging.

"How can you be actively engaged at church, call yourself a Christian, and be agnostic?" I responded, "Easy. You're a practicing Christian." The students responded, "What? How can you be a practicing Christian? If you don't believe then you are not a Christian." I responded, "Well, what about times when your faith fails or falters? Wouldn't continuing to practice Christianity during that dark time help keep your faith alive while you struggled? If so, practicing Christianity might actually be more important, more vital, than believing in Christianity.

Comments? 

Interesting Websites - "New" New Testament Translations....

I received an email yesterday from the Greater Emmanuel International Website...which piqued this post...

It announced a study on Revelation by Jonathon Mitchell...a frequent contributor on the GEIW website.  Like the study by David Fields, it takes a look at the book of Revelation, chapter by chapter, verse by verse...with explanations that differ from the standard status quo, "OH MY GOD THE SKY IS FALLING" interpretation.

FYI...another resource for a study on Revelation...if you have lots and lots of time to devote...is Preston Eby's From the Candlestick to the Throne series.  It is not a chapter by chapter study...and is kind of meandering....written with Eby's usual prolificness. Very detailed and encompasses more than just an interpretation of Revelation.  Oh, and of course, there is Ray Prinzing's, Revelation, a Positive Book.  Just saying...for anyone interested in looking into a view of Revelation the authors of the Left Behind series forgot to include in their collection of horror books.... 

So anyway...I am on the mailing list of the GEIW website because Keith and I became acquainted with their ministry...somehow....five or six years ago...perhaps longer when we attended a very small gathering they hosted at the YMCA in Hamilton.  At the time it was a real life...though very small....fellowship in Hamilton, Ontario.  John Gavazonni was the featured speaker.  I've always liked John G ....ever since his writing "The Great Misrepresentation" affirmed a view of the atonement I carried within my heart (but did not realize could be supported sculpturally) Since then the founder of the website, Alan Savage, passed away and it has become mainly an internet ministry. 

Their site houses or provides links to the writings of many kingdom ministries....Eby...Gavazonni...Ray Prinzing, Bill and Elaine Cook, Richard Wayne Garganta...AP Adams...and many more.  The site is definitely worth checking out.  And Jonathon Mitchell...well, in addition to the Revelation study...and quite a few other articles, has also translated the New Testament.  John Gavazonni often uses that translation in his writings.  It is one of the new New Testaments I referred to in the title of this post.  It is a translation that is not so much an easy read since it is akin to the Amplified Bible... on steroids.  Lots of study notes included in this version separated from the Biblical text with the use of parenthesis.  It does not flow off the tongue but does provide lots of details and insight into the meaning of the original words etc. 

Another new New Testament I've happened upon in the past year or so is called "The Source," a translation by Ann Nyland.  It was available at God's Word To Women....I have the pdf saved on my computer.  Unfortunately you won't find it at the GWTW anymore. They are miffed at Nyland for publishing a version of her translation earmarked especially for Lesbians, Gays, Bi, and Transgender--With Extensive Notes on Greek Word Meaning and Context.  I found this version  online.  I compared it, side by side, with the version I have on my computer and it is very (very) similar to the original version of The Source. There are some differences however...such as the study notes on the GLBT clobber versus are not neutral as they are in The Source.  So....up to you...if you want to read the biblical text of Nyland's translation....with a plethora of unique study notes, the majority of which have noting to do with homosexuality, you can find it HERE.  Otherwise, there is an online version of just the biblical text...no notes....HERE.  And of course you could always pay for a hard copy version available at Amazon....starting at about $20 used....

More from Michel Quoist

Okay...where did the weekend go?  It slipped away from me...and I am yawning, and tomorrow is the start of another week...so without further ado, I will let Michel Quoist write today's post....without much input from the peanut gallery.

If we knew how to listen to God, we would hear him speaking to us. For God does speak. He speaks in his Gospels. He also speaks through life--that new gospel to which we ourselves add a page each day. But we are rarely open to God's message, because our faith is too weak and our life too earthbound. To help us listen, at the beginning of our new intimacy with Christ, let us imagine what he would say if he himself interpreted his Gospels for the men of our day.

Michael Quoist

When I read this, I thought of the story about the disciples on the road to Emmaus....

Luke 24:27 Then he started at the beginning, with the Books of Moses, and went on through all the Prophets, pointing out everything in the Scriptures that referred to him. MSG

     

And another poem/prayer by Quoist....

Help me to say “Yes”

I am afraid of saying “Yes,” Lord.
Where will you take me?
I am afraid of drawing the longer straw,
I am afraid of signing my name to an unread agreement,
I am afraid of the “yes” that entails other “yeses.”
And yet I am not at peace.

You pursue me, Lord, you besiege me.
I seek out the din for fear of hearing you, but in a moment of silence you slip through.
I turn from the road,
for I have caught sight of you,
but at the end of the path
you are there awaiting me.
Where shall I hide?
I meet you everywhere.
Is it then impossible
to escape you?

But I am afraid to say “Yes,” Lord.
I am afraid of putting my hand in yours,
for you hold on to it.
I am afraid of meeting your eyes, for you can win me.
I am afraid of your demands,
for you are a jealous God.

I am hemmed in, yet I hide.
I am captured, yet I struggle,
and I fight
knowing that I am defeated.
For you are the stronger, Lord,
you own the world
and you take it from me.

When I stretch out my hand
to catch hold of people and things, they vanish before my eyes.

It’s no fun, Lord,
I can’t keep anything for myself.
The flower I pick
fades in my hands.
My laugh freezes on my lips.
The waltz I dance leaves me restless and uneasy.

Everything seems empty,
Everything seems hollow,
You have made a desert around me.
I am hungry and thirsty,
And the whole world
cannot satisfy me.

O Lord, I am afraid of your demands,
but who can resist you?
That your Kingdom may come
and not mine,
That your will may be done
and not mine,
Help me to say “Yes.”
Michel Quoist: Prayers of Life

'Tis (Still) the Season...

'Tis (Still) the Season...yes indeed. It must be. Proof of that is the continued presence of our crooked Christmas tree, a tree that grows crookeder and crookeder each day it remains here in the same (warm) room as the pellet stove. It is is still standing in front of the sliding glass door that leads to the patio. That in itself could be deemed a Christmas miracle...that it is somehow defying gravity by remaining upright. I've nicknamed the tree FUBAR.

So the holiday season seems to be a good time to take a look at Jesus...you know..."the reason for the season."  Several things have found their way into my inbox/web browser that have given me pause as I ponder Jesus.  Who he was.  What he did. Etc. etc. etc.  So in this post and the next couple of posts, I am going to take a closer look at that question. 

In a recent email to annie I wrote the following about pondering the virgin birth:

I am not ready to give it up...and I still get all choked up when the angels announce in the Christmas story...fear not for I bring you tidings of great joy...that shall be for all people....for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord. I'm not ready to give that up.

To which annie replied:

like you, i'm not willing to give up the virgin birth - although, it doesn't really make a particle bit of difference to me. whether 'miraculously' conceived or not, Jesus remains a Unique Son, the only manifestation of what it means to be fully human and fully divine, not merely in Essence, but also in experience. to say that he is our brother, that we are equally divine, will never diminish his role as the Firstborn, the One who blazed the trail, pierced the veil for the rest of us. he will always have 'the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus the Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father'. it would be a spirit of jealousy that would need to bring Jesus down or elevate ourselves, deny his uniquely individual role in human history that no one else could ever fulfill. it's hard to explain how i view 'let this Mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus'... he didn't think his divinity something to be grasped or lorded over anyone - yet he never shied away from saying, "I and My Father are One". there was no false humility there - no self-aggrandizement, yet no self-abasement either.

annie said that, for her, it really does not make any difference whether Jesus was miraculously conceived or not.  Somehow, it does make a difference to me...a big difference.  I am unwilling to give up the belief that Jesus was somehow God in the flesh... Emmanuel....in a way that I am not.

HOWEVER....

Jesus has been likened by many to other "god men" myths in other cultures.  A quick trip to google and I come up with the following list of names....

*Attis of Phrygia     
*Dionysus/Bacchus    
*Horus/Osiris of Egypt    
*Krishna of India
*Mithra of Persia   
*Zoroaster/Zarathustra   

There was a recent thread on beliefnet's Christian to Christan Message Board that discussed this topic in depth.  Actually, that is where I got the link to the section on Religious Tolerance entitled Were events in Jesus' life copied from other saviors/god-men/heroes?....

More on this...tomorrow.....

 

Still More on the Slippery Slope (3)

So what did Jesus mean when he talked about the preference for "old wine"? Was he talking about their preconceived ideas? Long held beliefs? Perhaps their cherished prejudices? Their spiritual inertia? Most of us prefer the old wine, the familiar...the home sweet home of our religious beliefs.

Recently I've come across several quotes and articles that talk about the Bible...inerrancy...literalism etc. Since this is an area where many are leery of new wine, I thought I might delve into it a bit in this haphazard "series."

I came upon an interesting quote, by happenstance, in the writings of Preston Eby. The quote was by Paul Mueller

There is a wonderful truth that is about to break in upon the minds and hearts of the Lord's elect, and that is the blessed truth that it is God's intention to write His complete word upon the tables of our hearts. The entire scripture, including the Gospel of Christ and the inspired word of truth divinely ordained for our growth unto perfection, the manifestation of the sons of God, and the propagation and administration of the kingdom of God, is all to be written upon the tables of our hearts. The fact is, the Bible as we now know it will one day become obsolete for us. The blessed book that we carry around, study and sometimes memorize, is to be imparted into our lives so that we are truly 'epistles...known and read of all men.' This is not to downgrade the Bible or to denigrate its effectiveness, authority, and inspiration. The book we call the Bible is, for the most part, the inspired word of God, and we are truly and deeply grateful for all it means to us. However, our respect for the Bible will not alter the great truth that it is God's intention that we become His living word. Every truth that has been given by the Spirit will eventually become a part of our lives, so that we will not need to turn to chapter and verse for guidance and truth, but rather, that truth will be written and engraved upon our lives so that we do by nature all the truth the Bible contains to the glory of God. From Preston Eby's The Lamb's Book of Life Part 1

Did you catch the part that declares that the Bible is...FOR THE MOST PART...the inspired word of God. Hmmm....so what "part" IS NOT the inspired word of God...and how do we tell the difference?

I mean, after all, if you start to throw out the parts of the Bible you don't like you might as well throw out the whole thing. Can you really pick and choose? And what if the parts that are not inspired are actually our beloved pet verses? The ones we cherish...the verses that go right to the heart of our beliefs?

I came across a blog post last night on The Christian Universalist called Father Forgive Them. The blog is well worth checking out. It is owned by Logan Geen, a very smart young man who has interesting, well researched opinions about a lot things and he writes about them articulately. In this particular post, he talked about some writings he'd come across on the web that dispute whether the words of Jesus from the Cross...as recorded in Luke..."Father forgive them for they know not what they do" were actually spoken. He listed links to several articles...seemingly unbiased (like the Net Bible) which explore this loaded question.

Bottom line...this oft repeated phrase from Jesus is not found in some of the earliest manuscripts. Some think it was added by a scribe to go along with the words spoken by Stephen when he was being stoned. Logan says the following...

I don't know if I'm being intellectually honest here or if what I say makes sense-whether I have a case for accepting the verse or am simply keeping it just because I "like it" and "I just don't know from a historical POV, but I do know the spiritual depth behind those words is indeed very real."

And all of what I just said reminds me of another essay written by Fred Plumer, the guy who wrote the essay that birthed this series. It is entitled " Don't Go There" and we will talk more about it....tomorrow.....

My Name Is Legion For We Are Many

A few weeks ago, I came upon an article about a 6 year old girl who has schizophrenia.  Her name is Jani...short for January.  My heart went out not only to Jani but also...perhaps especially, to her parents.  If you google "6 year old with schizophrenia" all kinds of articles come up.  The one I am going to quote from in this post was an article in the LA Times called Jani's at the mercy of her mind.

It presents a very unique insight into the Jani's world, her illness, her parents struggle, her relationship with them and her brother...and her relationship with a plethora of imaginary characters.  Many of them are rats, cats and other animals.  There is a cat named 400 and a girl named Wednesday that persuade her to do bad things.  Violent things.  Hitting, kicking, biting, screaming. Wednesday bites her until she complies. 

According to the article I read, Jani's case is very rare.  Schizophrenia usually hits in the late teens or early 20's. 

Doctors and other mental health experts don't fully understand the disease, which has no cure. Jani's extreme early onset has left them almost helpless. The rate of onset in children 13 and under is about one in 30,000 to 50,000. In a national study of 110 children, only one was diagnosed as young as age 6.

"Child-onset schizophrenia is 20 to 30 times more severe than adult-onset schizophrenia," says Dr. Nitin Gogtay, a neurologist at the National Institute of Mental Health who helps direct the children's study, the largest such study in the world on the illness.
"Ninety-five percent of the time they are awake these kids are actively hallucinating," Gogtay says. "I don't think I've seen anything more devastating in all of medicine."

When I read about Jani, one thing that came to mind was the story in the Gospels (in Matthew, Mark and Luke) about the demonic.

My name is Legion for we are many.  I wonder if his "many" tormenters had names like Jani's do?  Odd that the Bible never flat out claims that Jesus cured anyone with a mental illness...they were always possessed by a demon.  Today most of us scoff at the thought of demon possession, yet many still take what the Bible says about it at face value.

         

More on that...perhaps....to come. 

The Chapter About Homosexuality 3

Since I've been getting email notifications via my Borders Reward account announcing "free wifi" at Borders stores starting in October, I thought I would give it a try.  I had to pick Beth up from work at 7:30ish...so I went up an hour early expecting to sip a cup of their oh so strong coffee while cruising the net. To my disappointment, the Borders I frequent not only has no FREE wifi....but still has no wifi at all. 

So I looked through some of the documents I have saved on my flash drive in the "Homosexuality" folder. I saved some of these documents quite a while ago.  As I've mentioned, I've "researched" this topic several times over the past ten years or so.  Not an all out investigative effort...but with enough thoroughness to come to the conclusion that the commonly held Christian view of homosexuality could very well be (and most likely is) a sacred cow that needs tipping.  At the very least it is not in a special category of sin.  It is not the ultimate abomination in the eyes of God.  Non promiscuous, monogamous homosexual relationships do not strike me as an abomination.  How do I get around what the Bible "says"??

I am a Universalist....a Christian Universalist.  I realize there are verses in scripture that SEEM to say there is a hell....a hot hell...an everlasting hell.  Yet...if those verses are dissected, if meanings of the the Greek and Hebrew words are understood, if the verses are taken in context with some understanding of the times and the customs of that time period, the Bible declares no such thing as an eternal hell. I think a very similar case can be made for the verses that condemn homosexuality.  Hasn't the Bible also been used to justify slavery?  It has been used....and in many circles is still being used...to prevent women from full participation in the ministry.  I think homosexuality may be the next stronghold to crumble.  I hope it is. 

In this post...and probably the next few posts, I am going to take a brief look at some of the verses/arguments used to clobber homosexuals. 

         

But WHAT did He REALLY say?  That is the big question.

The article I read last night is from the Rainbow Alliance web site.  The article is called Cultic Temple Prostitutes and Homosexuality - A Christian Hoax?

It quotes from a book entitled The Invention of Sodomy in Christian Theology by Mark D Jordan.

The link leads to a limited preview on google books. Looks quite thorough. 

Also...check out Jordan's bio.

Mark D. Jordan, a renowned and wide-ranging scholar whose academic interests include the varieties of theological rhetoric, the performance of religious identities, Christian teachings on sex, and the work of Thomas Aquinas, has been appointed as the first Richard Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School. He will take up the new post in January 2009, moving to Harvard from Emory University, where he has been Asa Griggs Candler Professor since 1999.

Although today's post is getting quite wordy, I am still going to copy and paste a rather longish excerpt from the Cultic Temple article...more on all of this in my next post....

QUADESH: THE CULTIC TEMPLE PROSTITUTES
The KJV mistranslations I mentioned earlier are of the Hebrew term "quadesh" (male), "quadeshah" (female).  This term refers to cultic temple prostitutes, probably connected with the rather prevalent worship of Ashtart found generally throughout the Semitic world at that time.  Ashtart was known by a number of similar names, Ashtart, Asherah, Ishtar, Astarte, etc.  Ashtart was the consort of Baal. 

First a bit of background.  The Bible itself tells us that Ashtart (Asherah, etc.) was worshiped even in temple of Jerusalem for about 2/3 of the time it stood.

1 Kings 14:21-24 Solomon's son Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen from all the territory of Israel as the place where he was to be worshiped. Rehoboam's mother was Naamah from Ammon. The people of Judah sinned against the Lord and did more to arouse his anger against them than all their ancestors had done. They built places of worship for false gods and put up stone pillars and symbols of Asherah to worship on the hills and under shady trees. Worst of all, there were men and women who served as prostitutes at those pagan places of worship. The people of Judah practiced all the shameful things done by the people whom the Lord had driven out of the land as the Israelites advanced into the country.

2 Chronicles 33:1-6
Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for fifty-five years. Following the disgusting practices of the nations whom the Lord had driven out of the land as his people advanced, Manasseh sinned against the Lord. He rebuilt the pagan places of worship that his father Hezekiah had destroyed. He built altars for the worship of Baal, made images of the goddess Asherah, and worshiped the stars. He built pagan altars in the Temple, the place that the Lord had said was where he should be worshiped forever. In the two courtyards of the Temple he built altars for the worship of the stars. He sacrificed his sons in Hinnom Valley as burnt offerings. He practiced divination and magic and consulted fortunetellers and mediums. He sinned greatly against the Lord and stirred up his anger.

The Book of Kings describes the removal of the artifacts and courtesans of Astarte worship from the temple.

1 KINGS 22:46
He (Jehoshephat) got rid of all the male and female prostitutes who were left in the land from the time of his father Asa. 

2 KINGS 23:7
He destroyed the living quarters in the Temple occupied by the Temple prostitutes.

Now back to the Hebrew term 'quadesh' 'quadeshah' …

In the Zodhiates HEBREW-GREEK KEY STUDY BIBLE, you find the following,

"It [the masculine form] means a consecrated one, a devoted one, a sacred person; a devotee to a licentious idolatry, a cultic prostitute or priest of Astarte..."

Zodhiates goes on to define the feminine form thusly, "It means harlot, whore, sacred temple prostitute.  Prostitution received official sanction from the Canaanite religion which made reproduction part of its summum bonum.  As in India today, at the Holi festival, there were seasons of sexual orgy associated with Astarte.  The temple precincts became an inglorious brothel..."

The 1611 King James Version of the Bible contains a rather stunning mistranslation of the male form, "quadesh".  When studied in context, it is hard to imagine that the error was due to ignorance or simple error.  It appears to be deliberate.

Deut: 23:17 uses both the male and female forms of the term "quadesh".  The KJV translates them as follows: There shall be no whore [quadeshah] of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite [quadesh] of the sons of Israel. 

The more modern and accurate NIV translates the passage this way, "No Israelite, man or woman, is to become a shrine prostitute."

The KJV rendering of two entirely different meanings of the same word root is nonsensical. It is so nonsensical it is difficult to accept the possibility it could be an innocent error. 
There are others as well.  Among them:

1 Kings 15:12
KJV: "And he took away the sodomites [quadesh] out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made."
NIV: "He expelled the male shrine prostitutes from the land and got rid of all the idols his fathers had made."

The KJV translation is not only a stunningly inaccurate translation of the word "quadesh,", but in this instance it breaks up the continuity of thought within the sentence. It is another gross error.  How could it have been accidental or irresponsible?

LEVITICUS AND TEMPLE PROSTITUTION: TOEVAH

The Hebrew term "toevah" is found in the oft-quoted verses of Lev. 18 and 20. It is one of a number of terms translated to "abomination" in English. And it seems to be the favorite verse of those who use the Bible to justify prejudice and discrimination against homosexuals.

The Canaanite god of the sun, Baal and his consort, the fertility goddess Ashtart (Ashtoreth, etc.)  were commonly worshipped in the area.  The term "toevah" appears throughout the Law to denounce idolatrous practices. In fact it is used over 100 times in the Old Testament in the context of idolatrous practices. Temple prostitutes participated in the worship of the fertility god "Baal" on an altar-like bed. The incident at Baal-Peor (Numbers 25) was about idolatry with Baal prostitutes, not mere sex. The cult temple prostitutes had sex with anyone who paid money and worshipped Baal, whether man or woman. It's nothing more than political dishonesty to define a cult prostitute as a homosexual.

We are told three times that the laws set forth in Leviticus chapters 18-20 are to prevent the Israelite priests from engaging in the religious practices of the Egyptians and Canaanites (18:2-3; 18:24; 20:23). Chapter 20 even begins with a discussion of the god Molech, who was worshiped in Canaan.

Leviticus reserves other terms such as "zimah" to refer to immorality or sin. For instance it is used in the references to rape, incest and child sexual abuse.
Clearly the Levitican passages made a distinction between things that were immoral and/or sinful (zimah) and things that involved idolatry.

And the following excerpt from the article seems to be expressing, in more detail and with scriptural references, what Peggy Campolo believes.  Paul was not speaking out against monogomous, same sex relationships but against temple prostitution. 

PAUL AND TEMPLE PROSTITUTION
There can be little disagreement that the early Christians were concerned about the competing religions. Many texts that we have from Christians of the first few centuries represent documents explaining the deficits and evils of the other religions. The many texts quoted above attest to the fact that not only were the church fathers aware of the goddess religions, but were confronted with them to the extent that they dedicated several specific attacks on them in their writings. This isn't surprising, given the popularity and influence of the religions on the Greek and Roman cultures.
That Paul would have been familiar with the goddess religions seems inescapable. Temples and shrines to Cybele, Artemis, Venus/Aphrodite, Astarte, and others were scattered densely around the region of Paul's upbringing and missionary travels (Asia Minor, Greece, Cyprus, etc.). Vermaseren describes (via Pausanias) the area surrounding Corinth.  'First there were two shrines of Isis and two more of Serapis; then there were altars of Helios and a sanctuary of Ananke and Bia. Above this there stood a temple of the Mother of the Gods with a stele and a marble throne.'[M. J. Vermaseren, Cybele and Attis: The Myth and the Cult]
As Jeremy Townsley shows us in Paul, the Goddess Religions and Homosexuality, Paul's letter to the Romans most certainly describes one of the non-Christian religions of the area.

Rom 21-22: They claimed to be wise but were foolish:
The galli [eunuch priests of Cybele] claimed to tell people's fortunes, but everybody thought they were mad due to their frenzied dancing and self-mutilation. The Greek texts describe the "mania" of their rituals.

Rom 23: They made images of man and animals to worship:
The Cybele/Attis temple statues were primarily of Attis and/or Cybele, who were typically surrounded by images of other animals, particularly lions, birds and snakes. In addition, these temples were often filled with birds, because the galli believed they were too holy to touch, to chase them away.

Rom 26-27: They exchanged natural relations, etc:
One of the primary goals of the galli was to remove gender differences. This occurred through transvestitism, physically cutting off one's genitals and the exchange of sexual roles. The male galli would serve sexually "as women" to male worshippers in the temple. Women had sex with men (and possibly with other women), but in order to avoid pregnancy, they would have anal sex, not vaginal, as indicated by early church writers such as Anastasius, Clement of Alexandria, Augustine, and two apocalyptic texts.

CONCLUSION
Christianity has a long history of trying to make the case that the many Biblical condemnations of cultic temple prostitution are condemnations of homosexuality.  Although the work of numerous scholars has corrected the errors, the message just isn't getting out. Too many Christians have adopted a "KJV Only" mentality and refuse to benefit from advances in knowledge made over the last 400 years.  Even more Christians find that the errors serve as very convenient excuses for the promotion of hatred and discrimination.   

From Preston Eby on antichrist....

Recently (before I got off topic a bit) I wrote about the antichrist. As a starting point to ping pong my ideas off of, I used the writings of Joseph Salmon, Andrew Murray and Eckhart Tolle. (I’m pretty sure nobody comes here just to read what I have to say so I try to draw my ideas and examples and views from a wide source of references…different paradigms etc.) Another modern day writer…who I have mentioned and quoted quite often on this blog….also has a lot to say about (the) antichrist. He most definitely has more in common with Joseph Salmon than Eckhart Tolle. He would be more inclined to warn us that Tolle’s writings are a counterfeit. I would disagree, but even so there is a lot to learn about the concept of the christ within and the carnal man “without” from Eby.

The following excerpt begins with the question..…who are the antichrists (and John says there are many...right then and there in their midst….

Jn. 2:18 Little children, it is the last hour: and as you have beard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; wherefore we know that it is the last hour.

And so this “last hour” has been going on now for roughly two thousand years (give or take a few) and antichrists have been proliferating within the church…and the world.

First the question:

But who are they, what are they, and how do we recognize them?

And then Eby’s thoughts on the matter….

First, let us consider the meaning of the word. It comes from a compound Greek word made up of the preposition "anti" and the Greek word for Christ which is "Christos". "Anti" is a Greek word meaning "opposed to" or "instead of" or both of these meanings. The Greek word "christos" means "anointed". When "anti" is compounded with a noun signifying an agent of any kind, or functionary, the compound signifies a vice-functionary, or a functionary of the same kind opposing, or sometimes both. Some apply only the first meaning - a person "against" Christ. But this would not be a very specific point of identification. Millions of people have been against Christ. Paul, before his conversion, was "against" Christ. The Jews, pagans, communists, and members of non-Christian religions of all kinds have been against Christ. But such a broad application of the word could not be what was meant by John. His description is far more definite than this!

When John spoke of certain people which were a type of antichrist which was to come, he did not refer to all opposers of Christ. Instead, he referred to a certain class of people - apostates who were teaching things that were contrary to the revelation imparted by the Holy Spirit! These were not openly against Christ, they were professing Christians and apparent ministers of Christ! Therefore we find that the word "antichrist" properly signifies one who opposes, or one who sets himself up appropriating some of the attributes of Christ. That is, antichrist would appear as Christ and by so doing would actually be AGAINST Christ - usurping that place that rightly belongs to Christ alone! Anything that is placed INSTEAD OF Christ, is literally antichrist. We have contained and practiced a lot of attitudes, ideas, beliefs, doctrines, rituals, ceremonies, sacraments, ordinances, religious forms, babylonish traditions, which have TAKEN THE PLACE OF TRUTH AND REALITY in our lives. These may have contained bits and shades of truth and life, but they WERN'T THE LIVING REALITY OF CHRIST HIMSELF at all! They were shadow, but not substance; form, but not essence. Any little form of SUBSTITUTION that detracts from HIS INDWELLING LIFE is ANTICHRIST.

If at any time we accept an "instead of" rather than HIS WORD AND WILL AND LIFE WORKING WITHIN US, we have accepted that which is "antichrist". It is not merely that which is in direct opposition to Christ, but also includes anything, which of itself might be good, but is used INSTEAD OF Christ. And, beloved saints, the battle is not so much an outward one, but an INNER CONFLICT, until we are so cleansed by His blood, so purged of babylon's spirit and ways, that CHRIST IN US becomes our ONLY hope of glory! Praise God, the consuming fire of the dealings and processings of God in our lives is being, used to remove all these "substitutes" and "counterfeits" and bring us down to the true and only reality found in the LIVING CHRIST.

Now even though Eby is a bit more modern in his wording of things….he pretty much says the same thing Joseph Salmon was saying way back in 1647. Antichrist is not so much a person…but more of a spirit. The spirit of antichrist…and not just against Christ, but instead of. We see that all over the place…and one might argue we especially see it in organized religion. Looking “without” for what dwells “within.”